WALLACE: "So as you can see, in the presence of danger, the Leaping Tank rises from its foundations and leaps down the street and around the corner for safety." *model tank leaps two feet, crashes and burns. Little wooden soldiers spill out of the model aflame.* WALLACE: "Huh. Well, the real soldiers wont... um... won't burn quite so fast..."

When you listed the gyro tank as _least_ weird I thought "How can it get wierder than that?" Now I know.

Wallace's design is easily the most wonderfully horrendous "tank" design I've ever seen, and I need someone to actually make one

Thing that gets me about the Skeleton Tank is that the designers removed all the unnecessary bits of the tank to save weight... and then still kept the tracks going up high over the now non existing side sponsons. If they had just put the front and rear idler/drive wheels in the same position, drawn a tangent between them and removed anything about that line the entire tank could have been much lower and, dare I say it, state of the art 1920s.

For reference: the armament of the Yamato-class battleship was 9 18-inch guns. The Gyro Cruiser would have 12 17-inch guns. I just imagine it trying to fire a broadside and tipping over like a bicycle over from the force of firing all those guns at the same time.

I think it should be noted that the editor of Electrical Experimenter, Hugo Gernsback was not only a prolific writer of sci-fi, he is considered one of THE pioneers of modern Sci-fi and that the Hugo Award for Speculative Fiction is named after him

While the gyro cruiser is weird, I remember an old Justice League episode where the League goes to an alternate Earth and the Axis powers had gyro tanks, much like in the picture. And, as someone noted, Hugo Gernsback was a prolific sci-fi writer, so he probably just let his imagination run wild.

Brilliant! The comparison to the dog with the itchy but made me laugh out loud! Thanks for sharing this!

Re#1, there actually were gyroscopically stabilised vehicles, e.g. the Wolsely gyrocar of 1913 and the Brennan gyro-monorail of circa 1907. The concept is mentioned in H.G.Wells's 1908 novel The War in the Air.

Skeleton tank looks like something you make in Crossout when you are trying to use a few high-tier parts and save on points everywhere else.

The Wallace was intended to jump over enemy fortresses, and then make a two fronts attack, but my bet is things like it made prohibition seem like a good idea...

This channel is highly underrated, great video!

I'm very impressed with this video. I consider myself a bit of a weird military vehicle buff, but I hadn't heard of five of these six vehicles! My thoughts on each vehicle: Lyons Electric Gyrocruiser: Well, I guess at least it would work as a chemical weapon, when enemy fire blew open the giant mercury-filled wheels... Shuman Superdreadnought: A giant tricycle/steamroller that destroys enemy targets by driving over them and hitting them with dangling chains? Are we sure this wasn't designed by Warhammer 40k Orks? Skeleton tank: I can see so many transmission and power transfer problems with this thing. But like you said, I can see what they were going for. Wrona tank: So... It's basically a near-copy of the WW1 French Char d'assault Chamond, only with an extra gun and even more limited weapon traverse? Infantry Fort: I'm pretty sure I saw this once competing in Battlebots... Wallace Leaping Tank: All I can say is WTF. Although I guess we now know where Hasbro got the idea for the "Cobra Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball" GI Joe toy...

Should expand on the honorable mentions

Lyons Electro Gyro Cruiser would make excellent target practice for the enemy artillery of the time with its huge flat profile. I don't know what kind of armor it has but since it would have a difficult time hiding anywhere it is only fair to assume artillery would be pounding it like a pinata once it enters their firing range. Shumans Superdreadnought looks like something Dr. Loveless from the Wild Wild West feature film would enjoy. Wallace Leaping tank is the kind of tank you wish your enemy has, When it moves It has greater chances of harming its occupants that the enemy outside it, defying the whole concept.

A great video! Interesting and surprising content, with great pictures and production. I do hope Henry Wallace had other ideas to feed his family, because the pogo tank was ludicrous. Made me choke on my Mai Tai. Aloha!

The gyro cruiser deserves to be some sort of roaming boss in an open world game, or maybe a set piece in a ghibli film

Leaping Tank + AI these days ... shrink it to a small armoured box, make it a mansized heavyarmoured "loitering ground nuisance" forcing the enemy to fire AT-weapons or similar to take it out... weird idea but just the "WTF"-Face of the Enemy when encountering this for the first time would be worth a prototype

'The Three Stooges in Orbit' featured something uncannily similar to "the combination vehicle". It was a silly movie, but fun for a Sunday afternoon.

You just earned a new subscriber. Informative and funny. Thank you.

The Infantry Fort demonstrates a very basic misunderstanding of what made trench warfare what it was. The problem wasn’t that soldiers couldn’t get to enemy trenches and take them, the problem was that they couldn’t get the necessary heavy support and communications equipment forward in order to _keep_ the trench and advance the line. This is what tanks like the Saint Chamond were created to try and remedy: by creating mobile artillery that could advance with the infantry. (The Saint Chamond wasn’t exactly mobile enough, though)

Maybe Wallace’s design was meant to kill the enemy with laughter and with its terrible visibility for surrounding friendly troops, being around it would’ve been just as dangerous, never mind if one fell over.

Great video as always :)

The artwork for that tricycle tank is excellent. I really liked how that was drawn. It was like I was right there, watching a metropolis drag is hairy balls across the face of some "minutes from down-town, highway adjacent suburb" to everyone's extreme satisfaction. Wallace Tank looks like it would be parachuted into position by a big aircraft or flying saucer, which were popular back then. The structure shows what appears to be lightened girders, and if not drawn for lack of any practical knowledge of armor, those could be evidence of intent to air-transport. Giant leg is drawn with telescoping proportions, so could be a collapsing shock absorber. With guns all around, as long as it lands leg-side-down, it is facing the enemy, and can defend its flanks until other forces catch up to it. When thought of as a "Place a strongpoint wherever you need one on any battlefield" type of thing, it makes a lot of [marketing] sense. Later videogamers would call this highly effective anti-AI technique "turret creeping". Simply drop a turret where your front line can defend it, then drop your next one where the previous turret can defend it, move up your front line, and Bob's your uncle, it would seem.

I'd LOVE to see a war movie with all the ridiculous weaponry. Like Iron Sky.

I'd love to trade my Bandit 1200 for that electro cruiser...now that's a motorcycle!

Impractical is putting it mildly... Ha ha, loved the itchy butt reference - Great Video!

Really interesting vid, never knew about these at all. Very weird designs lol.

the skeleton tank does not fulfill the purpose of giving shelter to following infantry like early tanks did

I saw a tank design from ww1 that was an open topped tub that tunnelled through the ground with the top of the tub level with the ground, essentially being a moving section of trench. It was also able to launch "enfilading machines", wheels that either had guns sticking out of the sides or just exploded after a set amount of time. The enfilading machines were just a single relatively narrow wheel that the tank would spin up and drop, letting them roll towards and into an enemy trench. The only issue was that there was nothing to keep them going in a straight line or prevent them falling over on the rough ground.

Those first two are goddamn masterpieces of post-Wells gigantism. Love them!

Do not forget who came up with the idea of the tank, Leonardo da Vinci. Wow what an inventor.

I got a feeling that is the same Wallace that went to the moon with his dog for a picnic

I would love to see that Wallace tank stomping on a Pz IV like it's a goomba

imagine a tank jumping over the battlefield coming to you at 30mph, that would be terrifying

Totally agree with your assessment of the pogo stick of doom.

The skeleton tank made me imagine a tank with a rifle-calibre-proof outer skin and an internal armoured citadel. Could have been genuinely confusing & terrifying in the early days of tank combat to see this zombie tank getting ripped apart by shrapnel etc but still going, but as soon as the enemy captured one the mystery would be over

Very weird designs! Thank you.

The Wallace Leaping Tank was obviously inspired those 1930's film serials like Buck Rogers.

Looking at the Infantry Fort there is a tracked platform in use with some law enforcement agencies called the Rook. It's a tracked bobcat loader with the bucket replaced by an armored platform that can be elevated in order to allow officers to access rooftops. It also has a breaching device out front for kicking doors and barricades in. Also, in regards to the Wallace Leaping Tank, Cobra had this pogo platform that had four legs and hydraulics. That, even though it was a toy, was more feasible as a weapons platform.

That Wallace Design could have been used as a portable Defense/Scout Turret. Dig it in, and when enemy is near, push it up! I imagine, only a heavy mortar can damage that thing on top. It is not really a vehicle, so possibly, to be dropped, maybe even by parachutes. Like a Portable Pillbox. Thx for the nice Video!

I'm impressed that Wallace came up with a design sillier than the DC Comics War Wheel.

I kinda like the butt-scoot Wallace tank idea, not exactly a high speed assault vehicle but if you're mired in trench warfare a neigh impregnable steel pillbox that inexorably scoots forward a few meters every day is still a better way to advance the line than sending wave after wave of men charging into machine-gun fire.

Wallace's Leaping Tank, sounds like an amazing Wallace and Gromit Movie.

Thats weird how they made trenches just stuck into the ground like that, didnt they ever think they'd need to move them. Also the pogo stick tank would have been a great name for that last one. Real george jetson ish.

Hugo Gernsbach is considered the father and godfather of modern science, as an author and editor of several of the seminal "pulp" magazines that started the genre as we know it nowadays. He is also considered the ideological father of hard science fiction.

"What if we took a lawnmower and made it the size of an aircraft carrier?"

My first thought when I saw those first two tanks was "that looks like something from one of Hugo Gernsback's magazines". 😅

14:11 Cobra thought it was a good idea 😂

Imagine trying to design a tank and just be like "hmmm.. P o g o s t i c k"

While half of these were designed/never saw combat im actually planning on having these make an appearance in a manga that im doing to give it more of that Deiselpunk kinda vibe along with some of the well established ones like the mark IV plus i think these are all really intresting aswell as unique 😄

Great content homie. Ty!

The Gyro Cruiser, the most ultimate bike ever: lane splitting a problem? SPLIT THE WHOLE HIGHWAY, YOUR WAY!

The only thing missing is all the gerbils running inside small wheels powering these beasts. Having said that, super cool designs for some artsy games or other art ^^ Thanks for a good video! Edit: Like your humor, keep it up =)

I genuinely laughed out loud at the AMERICA FIRST tank in the end.

You missed the iron globe on PSM, my fave. But I hadn't seen the leaping tank before. Wallace was doing so much hand waving it must have injured his wrists.

Wow! I saw the thumbnail of the Gyrocruiser and what I saw was a one man armored motorcycle!

Interesting enough, the Wallace Leaping Tank design kinda survived and become a thing, more or less. The Walking draglines, or crawler draglines use a "walking leaping" system that allows them to move. Something like the Wallace tank woudl do with it's arm retracted.

Wallace didn't have Gromitt to advise him on the design that day. lol

The UK was literally working on a leaping truck that could jump over buildings. It was a serious project.

I clicked because I thought that "gyro" was some kind of reasonable sized armored motorcycle, and I'm leaving with a massive feeling of "WTF!?" 😅

I bet some of the early ones were really weird, lyons electric cruiser is something outa cartoons lol.

Please - somebody add these into some tank-battle game? Especially that last one.

Wallace Leaping tank is... Well I can see that. But not with MG's but cannons and used as a long range engaging fortification that is camuflaged, and when enemy engages it - it can go up and down, preventing aimed shots from tanks. Or even changes it's angle to make any shell bounce if hit. I wondered about something like an extented "arm" with a ERA that changed directions when incoming shell/rocket is going (connected to a system that simply react to any heat signature or maybe a flash/movement and moves the "shield" in front of it), something like a "cope cage" that is really working.

Wallace was definitely not sober when he was making his design

Leaping tank should have been in a Mel brooks movie. The one where they are running out of "air" so are forced to buy perri-air from the neighbouring planet maybe? 🤔

Good video. I've always been a tank buff, but lost interest over the years. In terms of this video, the skeleton tank is the only one I knew of.

WHAT??!!! You didn't do any info on those last four tanks??!! The Alligator tank! The Combo tank! The America First Tank!

Thank you for teaching me the name Hugo Gernsback I finally got a reference from a TTRPG I am playing.

Wallace’ design could somehow be made possible in a modern 3D animated kids movie.

That Hugo Gernsbeck, what a crazy guy! Jet planes...rocket ships...atomic power, sheesh what a nut......p.s. As for the Wallace design it is Apparent from the last drawing that it was dependent on at least three possibly four methods of gyroscopic control. It's easy to Envision and air-cooled rotary engine placed horizontally driving the three different gyroscopes and the hydraulic system for the leaping action.

Some far out shit. Still captivating stuff though . Good work.💛

Number 1 makes me think of a treehouse. It could even move like a tree house…. Extend the turret up as a raised armored shooting platform and when you wanted to move it tilt it in the direction and just let it fall. “Timber!!” Like a tree being felled with its treehouse and occupants along for the ride. Then retract the leg and let it settle in place to then start over again… well after you scrape the crew out and replace them!

If that isn't the coolest logo I have ever seen, I don't know what is. 😂

Patito. Patito. Patito. Para ti todo mi rey. (: Un abrazo.

6:13 My man took a look at the Saint Chamond and thought it would be a good idea in 1940. Because clearly, the Saint Chamond was the superior tank to the Renault FT Just look at them: The Saint Chamond is _way_ bigger. That means it’s better, right?

8:46 Dude should have given the designs to New Zealand. Bob Semple would be SHOOKT.

The Wallace Pogo tank .... sounds like something from Wallace and Gromit 😂😂😂

1:43 I personally don’t count large-wheel landships as tanks. In my mind, the word “tank” only applies to vehicles with treads.

Maybe the last one was just a way to elevate a pillbox to get better line of sight? An anchored platform that could telescope up might, in some very specific situations... no, it would still be stupid, but not as stupid. There were pop up coastal defense guns. Maybe the idea is it could have raised up to deal with waves of enemies, but lowered itself behind a hill when enemy batteries where hitting the area?

Now I just want to make an AU where these tanks were actually used.

Wallace literally weaponised pogo sticks 😂

Always "pay attn" to either "Popular" magazine. I recall reading in the 70's about Scram and Ram jets with Stealth and inside out batteries that charge and make hydrogen for a fuel cell use.

.. great jumping Wallace tanks batman! ... a Wallace and Grommet animation tank?😊

The first one looks like something out of howl moving castle

A tank motorcycle is plenty absurd. At any size. But I'd love to see a van motorcycle. 2000lbs, 5 seats, roof. That could work, and built high without becoming unstable. Like a giant monotracer. Cargo space without taking up space. A rideable skyscraper. Cars need a certain width/low center of gravity to get through a corner. Motorcycles not so much.

Calling them "absurd" shows you have no concept of how ideas build upon eachother into success.

'Certainly more practical than today's neocons.... and Much more entertaining.

A pogo tank! :D

The skeleton tank is all flat surfaces, so it would take far less penetration to pierce it with the same armor thickness, since there isn't any deflecting angles, and it would be far less structural when it comes to driving over uneven terrain...

Shuman’s Superdreadnought looks like the experimental Tsar Tank the Russia built in WW1. And the Wrona tank has similarities Germanise A7V from ww1.

Ironically many years later...the Gryotank would appear in popular media in the Gundam series as the Adrastea class...part battleship part motorcycle, all rediculous!

You should make a another video or two of weirdest German tank designs. and weirdest Russian/ussr tank designs.

Wait... that isn't an armored motorcycle? Is... IS THAT A HOUSE RIGHT NEXT TO IT?!

Armored pogo stick, now I've seen everything

the gyro cruiser is a dieselpunk person's wet dream

The Alligator tank with a few refinements could make a good APC.

That Wallace one strikes me as a manned bouncing Betty.

2 looks like if the top was larger and had a turret it would be a good design. 1 while the enemy was laughing the infantry would attack.

Ah, tanks for the memories.